Ticket Punched! JMU Dominates Arkansas State to Win 2024 Sun Belt Title

Monday, March 11

Pensacola, Fla.

7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT)

James Madison University

31-3,15-3Sun Belt

Arkansas State

18-16,11-7Sun Belt

Arkansas St.

James Madison

Ticket Punched! JMU Dominates Arkansas State to Win 2024 Sun Belt Title

3/11/2024 8:52:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

PENSACOLA, Fla. – James Madison. Sun Belt Conference champions. That has a great ring to it.

Xavier Brown exploded for his first career double-double, and James Madison dominated for nearly the entire game to capture the 2024 Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Championship with a 91-71 victory over Arkansas State Monday night at the Pensacola Bay Center.

With the win, JMU (31-3) advances to its sixth NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship and the eighth overall at any division, dating back to 1974.

The Dukes will find out its NCAA postseason fate on Sunday, March 17 during the March Madness Selection Show, which airs at 6 p.m. on CBS.

The win cements JMU's fifth conference title in program history and its first in exactly 11 years to the day when it claimed the 2013 Colonial Athletic Association crown.

Brown finished the game with career highs of 21 points, all in the first half, and 5-of-6 from three-point range while cleaning up the glass with a career-best 10 rebounds. Terrence Edwards Jr. turned in a big second half to finish with 19 points, while Jaylen Carey was a force off the bench, tallying 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting. Noah Freidel scored all of his 12 points in the second half to aid four double-figure scorers.

Freidel was named the Sun Belt Championship Most Outstanding Performer, while Edwards Jr. joined him on the All-Tournament Team.

JMU's 91 points were tied for the fourth most in its postseason history and was the team's first time over 90 since the 1994 conference semifinals.

JMU shot an incredible 62.5 percent (35/56) from the floor and nearly 58 percent from beyond the arc (11/19). Arkansas State shot just under 36 percent (21/59) overall and just 28 percent (7/25) from deep.

A-State was paced by a game-high 24 points from Freddy Hicks, as five Red Wolves scored in double figures. Derrian Ford and Izaiyah Nelson each had 12 while Caleb Fields and Taryn Todd added 10 apiece.

JMU led for almost 34 minutes in the game, as there five ties and five lead changes early on in the first half. The Dukes led by as many as 29 in the second half and turned in a 20-point postseason win for the first time since 2009.

The 91 points were the most for JMU in a conference title game ever, besting its previous record of 77 when the Dukes won on a buzzer beater in 1994.

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half – JMU 42, A-State 32

The story in the first half came via a combined 32 points from Brown and Carey to give JMU a 42-32 lead at the break.
Brown scored a career-high 21 points and knocked down five 3-pointers, also a career high, while adding a team-high six rebounds in 16 minutes of action. Carey was a force down low, scoring 11 on 5-of-6 shooting.
JMU opened up a 10-5 lead less than four minutes in after a pair of 3-pointers from Brown and Julien Wooden.
Ford answered with five straight for A-State to knot the game at 10 apiece with 14:43 remaining.
With teams trading buckets, Brown provided a huge spark, scoring 10 straight for the Dukes, leading to a 10-2 run, to give JMU a 27-20 lead with 7:39 left in the half.
Leading 36-29, Carey and Brown both scored to extend the lead to double digits, at 40-29 with two minutes to play.
JMU shot 55.2 percent in the half (16/29) and 50 percent (6/12) from long range, while the Red Wolves were held to 29.4 percent (10/34) from the floor and 30 percent (3/10) from three.
A-State dominated the offensive glass, 14-4, and led JMU 25-16 overall in rebounding but managed just eight second-chance points.

Second Half – JMU 91, A-State 71

JMU opened the second with five quick points off a Freidel triple and an Edwards Jr. hook shot, moving the lead to its largest of the game at that point, at 47-32 with 18:31 to go.
Freidel electrified the JMU faithful less than three minutes into the half after knocking down a corner three and completing a four-point play to make it 51-36.
A-State got it down to 12 points twice until a JMU 6-0 spurt of paint points over 40 seconds grew the lead to 62-44 with 13:48 to play.
Arkansas State never got closer than 15 the rest of the way, as the lead quickly ballooned to 25 points, at 76-51, with 9:21 to go.
Leading 81-58, Edwards Jr. and Bickerstaff scored six in a row to make it 87-58, the largest margin of the night (29), with 5:35 left.
A-State closed with 13 of the game's final 17 points for the final score.

GAME NOTES

JMU will enter the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship with the nation's longest-active win streak, at 13 straight games. This comes after a season-opening 14-game win streak.
JMU's 31 total wins set a Sun Belt Conference single-season record, surpassing Little Rock's 30 in the 2015-16 season.
Arkansas State held a 36-30 rebounds advantage in the game, thanks in large to 17 offensive rebounds. However, A-State only scored eight second-chance points.
JMU outscored the Red Wolves 42-28 in the paint and 25-3 off the bench.
Both teams had 14 assists, which was 40 percent of JMU's makes and two-thirds of A-State's.